Many existing pole saws are gasoline driven and use centripetal clutches to couple the engine and the elongate shaft to the cutting instrument. Centripetal clutches will decouple the engine and the shaft when the engine speed drops below a threshold, and thus may disengage the shaft and engine when the engine idles. Because electric pole saws do not include an engine that idles, centripetal clutches are not necessary to decouple the shaft from the electric motor. Additionally, existing electric pole saws include non-telescoping flex cable shafts (constructed by twisting many steel wires into a cable configuration) that can withstand the torque applied to the shaft when the electric motor stops during use.